Heaven's Golden Gate

The current issue of the Economist (June 10th-16th 2006) has a short article ("Deadly Beauty", p28) on the popular if macabre use of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California - namely, on its function as the perfect suicide locale. Apparently, the 4-foot-tall railing deters only the most hesitant would-be suicides.

As for the rest, according to the data published in the article, the Golden Gate Bridge with its two-per-month attempted suicide rate is the most popular place in the world to call it quits. (Far from everyone succeeds, though).

Regular readers of SiteBits will remember my surprise at finding a somewhat ugly-looking Plexiglas wall separating the pedestrian walkway of the Calle Segovia bridge (Madrid) from its banisters. Well, ugly as it may be, some in San Francisco have been thinking along similar lines. To be sure, there are plenty of arguments against the protective barrier - chief among them, "people will just find a way to do it elsewhere". Yet others counter with saying that most suicidal acts are impulsive and preventable.

But as usual, the most important argument here is about money. Building a barrier will cost anywhere from $15M to $25M and it is for the members of the transportation district board to ponder whether they can even afford adding such a structure.

It the meantime, the present barrier stands at 4 feet (1.2 meters) and we, for our part, sincerely hope that our readers do not care too much about its exact height.

FYI. The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the largest suspension bridges in the world. It was built in 1930's.

Photo by Peter Craig, Wikipedia